Art auctions still soaring at Ketterer Kunst: High increases and many new customers

Zao Wou-Ki, 28.3.71. Estimate:  280.000. Sold for:  512.400

MUNICH.- It was nothing but an outstanding end of the season. The atmosphere was incredible and we could barely handle the enormous rush of 684 bidding requests (not including bidders in the auction room) on the 281 works, says Robert Ketterer. And he continues: One out of three customers was new and every lot sold went up by an average of more than 50 percent. The  100.000 mark was crossed 28 times. All this led to an excellent overall result of  16,7 million* in our autumn auction season**, which even topped the great result of 2011.

Modern ArtWith a result of  536.800*, Heinrich Campendonk's oil painting Zwei Pferde (lot 53) did not only take the lead in the section of Modern Art. A Swiss businessman eventually bought the work from 1913 for three times the starting price and relegated phone bidders, most of them from western Germany, to places second and beyond.

Another top lot is Gabriele Münter's Kirche an der Ramsach (lot 54), which a collector from Bavaria had to defend against competitors from all over Germany and Austria. With a result of  378.200* it was bought for more than a three-fold the starting price.

Next to Münter's oil painting Narvik Hafen (lot 42), which went to a collector from Southern Germany for  207,400*, five other works by the artist were successfully sold with high increases.

Max Pechstein's first female nude made for similar glamor, his 1906 oil painting Die Quelle (lot 16). The masterpiece, which had outlasted the years on an attic in Dresden, went to a collector from Russia, who honored the work with a result of  341.600*.

A Swiss collector let Egon Schiele's Liebespaar (lot 18) soar to a threefold of its starting price and eventually won the lot against tough competition from Austria for a result of  317.200*.

All sold with remarkable increases can be said about 12 works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The first place is shared by the wooden relief Ziege (lot 39) and the color chalk drawing Zwei Modelle im Atelier (lot 20), which will both remain in the German language region for  85.400* each. More than twice its starting price of  32.000 was realized by the charcoal drawing Badendes Paar im Atelier (lot 17), which was sold to Hesse for  61.000*.

Dodo's Wedding auf dem Dachgarten (lot 45) passed the market test with flying colors. The 1929 work on paper by the Berlin artist, whose work was offered on the German auction market for the first time, entered the race with a confident starting price of  40.000. But that was beaten soon. Calling from Morocco, a northern German collector bid by phone and won the lot for  67.100*, standing his grounds against competitors from Germany and the U.S.A.

Post War/Contemporary ArtTwo works by the Beijing native Zao Wou-Ki occupy top positions in this section. Alone for his watercolor from 1960 (lot 243) some 25 bidders, among them 14 first timers, among others from Taiwan, France, Luxemburg, the U.S.A. and China, had listed for phone and written bids respectively. The race was eventually won by a collector from France for the remarkable result of  115.900. The tension rose even more three lots later, when Wou-Ki's oil painting 28.3.71 was called up at  280.000. An Asian residing in Spain fought out a bidding skirmish against an art dealer from Great Britain over the phone. In the end, however, the trophy was carried home by a collector from Switzerland for  512.400*.

ZERO art was generally in popular demand: The leg of five works by Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and Günther Uecker, all sold at excellent prices, peaked in the work Spirale (lot 256) by the latter. For  390.400* it went to a bidder from the Berlin region, who relegated several fellow countrymen and customers from Belgium, Italy, Austria and the U.S.A. to places second and beyond. Heinz Mack's acrylic work from 1961 (lot 261) was also quite popular, accordingly, just as it was the case with Uecker's Spirale, almost a dozen telephones were in action, taking bids from Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Liechtenstein and Austria. Eventually, a Belgian bidder can now call the work his own for a result of  231.800*. The object Bettina by the same artist made for a five-fold its starting price of  28.000, so the light stele in the end went to a buyer from western Germany for  156.160*.